Kant, Race, and Racism

Kant, Race and Racism locates Kant’s theory of races in his philosophical system and demonstrates how his understanding of scientific theories enabled the introduction of a systematic concept of race that could structure attitudes and practices. The book also details Kant’s role in excluding non-Western authors from the philosophical canon. In a forward-looking conclusion, Huaping Lu-Adler explains how, with a better understanding of what Kant did, current scholars can use some aspects of his moral theory to try to undo vestiges of his unfortunate legacy on the question of race. Anyone who teaches Kant’s ethics should find time to read this illuminating and comprehensive study of his institutional role in diminishing the prospects of members of non-White races. * Patricia Kitcher, Roberta and William Campbell Professor Emerita of the Humanities, Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Columbia University *In this deeply researched and illuminating study, Lu-Adler cracks open the Kant archive to present readers with a piercing analysis of Kant’s long legacy as a writer, educator, and indeed as a major figure in the philosophical canon itself. While there have been numerous small studies of the role played by racialized peoples in Kant’s philosophy before now, there has not yet been a systematic study of this scale or of such persuasive achievement. Speaking to those of us still engaged by the figures and themes of the Enlightenment, Lu-Adler closes her book with a sense of optimism and an action plan for antiracist educators and scholars alike. Kant, Race, and Racism: Views from Somewhere will dramatically reshape contemporary debates over all these issues and be essential reading for anyone invested in maintaining Kant’s relevance in the academy today. * Jennifer Mensch, Author of Kant’s Organicism: Epigenesis and the Development of Critical Philosophy *As an intervention in an ongoing debate on Kant’s racism and on the consequences of the recognition of Kant’s racism, Kant, Race, and Racism is challenging-and indispensable-to everyone concerned about how philosophy should be done by those with antiracist commitments. * Robert Bernasconi, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University *[Kant, Race, and Racism] marks a new stage in [Kantian] debates. This is a landmark book that is both unavoidable and indispensable for anyone keen to think or write about Kant and Race. Quite simply, if you have something to say on the subject, it will have to be in relation to what Lu-Adler has written here. And what she has written is nothing short of breathtaking in its scope, ambition, and originality.“-Inder Marwah, Kantian ReviewLu-Adler’s Kant, Race, and Racism is essential reading for Kant scholars, and indeed for all philosophers with antiracist commitments in a field shot through with Kant’s controversial legacy. Lu-Adler’s powerful study sets a new benchmark that moves scholarship beyond the standard ‘contradiction thesis’ dispute to a situated understanding of Kant as a producer of racial knowledge at a critical juncture in world history.”-Andrew Cooper, European Journal of Philosophy

Huaping Lu-Adler is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University. She specializes in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Western philosophy (particularly epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of science, and logic). She is the author of Kant and the Science of Logic (Oxford, 2018).